Home > Consumer Reviews > Canon PowerShot A580 Digital Camera -Silver (8.0MP, 4xOptical Zoom) 2.5" LCD

I bought this camera for my trip to the States recently, and all I can say so far is, absolutely great! Bought from Amazon.com and delivered in 2 working days - spot on!

I have to admit, I am one for trying to use something without having to bother with reading instructions. Thankfully, this camera is definately user-friendly. It is so easy to use. Sure there are more sophisticated options available to use on this camera, that will I probably need to address the manual for but, for a camera that you can just pick up and shoot impressive photos straight away, this baby does the trick. Even at full zoom, the picture quality is not distorted much at all.

I previously had a Samsung 8 MP camera, and the difference in quality of pictures this Canon takes compared to the Samsung are impressive. I could ramble on about how good this camera is, but if you are like me, you will just want to be re-assured that this is worth buying - IT IS!

Easy and simple to use, great pictures (day or night), nice looking and compact camera. Oh and I nearly forgot, I don't know what Canon put in there batteries, but the standard alkaline ones that came with the camera are lasting ages. I have taking over 80 pictures so far and no sign of them running out (no doubt they will, now I have mentioned it!); very impressed.

This Canon A580 PowerShot camera is a great buy!

My previous camera, a Pentax Optio E10, was stolen when we were on holiday on the Costa del Sol in June, so once home and Insurance sorted I spent what seemed like hours and hours looking at digital cameras and the reviews submitted.
I evenutally decided on the Canon Powershot A580 and I am really glad I did. Purchased online from Amazon.co.uk and delivered within two days along with a 2GB memory disk and carrier pouch.
My main worry initially was the batteries. My first camera, a Nikon Coolpix 2100 was horrendous, good little camera but seemed to go through batteries(rechargeables) very very fast and was very frustrating. The Pentax was reasonably ok but I was concerned when I read the Canon used alkaline batteries, but so far so good.
We went on a Med cruise end of August which is why I wanted a replacement camera and I was very happy with this camera. So far original batteries still going strong and very happy with the pics I took.
Also process of transferring pics from camera to PC appears to be easy and straight forward so would thoroughly recommend this camera for ease of use and reasonable cost and good picture quality.

What I really like about this camera is how easy it is to switch it on and take a picture without worrying too much about how it will come out. In almost every case it will be fine, with maybe a bit of manipulation in whatever photo library package you choose (Picasa, free, or Adobe Lightroom that I use).

Only dislike that in the auto setting the flash is on, I normally turn it off straight away to prevent it causing any unwanted problems. The resolution and contrast are fine for later manipulation even if it is a little bit dark.

This is my first digital camera and I am very impressed with the build quality and ease of use together with the fact that, unlike the more professional SLR's, it is small and light enough to fit in my jacket pocket.

I do have a few small gripes though.

1. Sadly the 32 Mb MMC cards that is supplied by Cannon is a bit of a joke given that most pictures are around 3 to 4Mb. I purchased a 8GB SDHC for a few quid and have had to problems with that.
2. Standard batteries are no good, I bought some Uniross 2700mAh batteries from Amazon together with a charger and this does the trick.
3. The flash is adequate for most things but outdoor shots in low light may come out rather poor. The supplementary flash is a tad expensive too.

All in all a very good camera and highly recommended, just get some reachable batteries and a decent sized memory card and you will be sorted.

I can not comment on the software supplied by Cannon as I have never used it.

Camera isnt too bad for the price but it does write a bit slow to the SD card